While I have written numerous times about schools on Capitol Hill, this has usually meant public schools – or private schools offering the usual three Rs. Today, I want to look at a school that flourished (briefly) on the Hill, offering a very different range of subjects to its students.
The Capital Conservatory first appears in 1898, and is announced by an ad in the Washington Evening Star that states that it offers a “collegiate course for young ladies” – both boarders and day students. The school is at 1113 E Capitol Street, ie, on the southern border of Lincoln Park.
The teachers were two spinsters, Agnes (or Anne) Lucille Merrill and her sister Edna. Both were under 30 years old, and had moved from New York to teach the young women of the Capitol the ins and outs of music, elocution and deportment. Total price for a year’s instruction was a very reasonable $25, about $700 in today’s dollars.
In 1900, the school had moved to 605 Massachusetts Ave NE, and the following year to 4 8th Street SE – which is also listed as the home for the two sisters. In 1902, both the Star and the Times stopped by to see what the young ladies had learned in the previous year. While only two of them are mentioned as being graduates, a large number of – presumably younger – women received awards for scholarship and deportment. The highlight of the evening was an ‘excellent program [which] as rendered by the pupils.’ It consisted of piano selections by such famous composers as Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, and Frédéric Chopin – as well lesser-known ones as Gustav Lange and Ignace Leybach. There followed the literary portion, which contained an elocution contest, a “Shakespeare selection” and finally the “reading of well-prepared essays by a number of the pupils.”
Advertisement for the Capital Conservatory, as it ran in the Washington Evening Star in August, 1900. The school year ran from around the beginning of October until late May or early June. (LOC)
In spite of this well-regarded program, one that shared space on the pages of the Times with news of the commencement ceremonies of Columbian College (now George Washington University) and Georgetown University, it seems that not all was well at the Conservatory. A few years later, although the school still is advertising for students in its new premises at 638 C Street NE, one of the sisters is listed as working at the Government Printing Office – not exactly what you would expect from a flourishing institution.
The last time the Capital Conservatory is mentioned in in 1907. This time, the Washington Herald stopped by to see what the students had learned. Once again, Shakespeare figured prominently, and – intriguingly – the “highest honor of the conservatory, a gold medal for scholarship” was won by one William St. Clair. When, exactly, the school had opened its doors to young men is uncertain.
Just as uncertain is what happened to the Merrill sisters. Congressional Cemetery lists an Agnes Merrill as being buried there, having died on Christmas Day, 1933, but there is no indication that this is the same Agnes Merrill who had taught the young women – and men – of Capitol Hill piano, elocution, and essay-writing 30 years earlier.